Kalen DeBoer addresses the Alabama football standard, and what it means
The question was as simple as the answer was easy, but Crimson Tide coach Kalen DeBoer juggled the ball just a bit before getting around to the inescapable conclusion: no.
At SEC Media Days Wednesday, DeBoer also fielded queries about his team's quarterback competition, scheduling and coaching staff changes. He handled them all with aplomb, but none of those hit quite as hard. None of those boiled his first season at the UA helm, in replacement of a living legend in Nick Saban, down to the bottom-line disappointment that it was. A program that had made a routine of qualifying for a four-team playoff managed to miss out on a 12-teamer, and two losses in particular — a letdown at Vanderbilt, and no-show at Oklahoma when a CFP berth was there for the taking — left the Crimson Tide with nobody to blame but itself.
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So was the standard met?
"In which way? To me personally?," DeBoer first asked, as if there might be some daylight between his perception of the standard and that of the fan base.
"What you evaluate to be the 'Bama standard," came the questioner's clarification.
"If you internally ask us, no. We fell short of making the playoffs. It's as simple as that, right? Giving yourself a chance to go compete for a championship," DeBoer replied. "I think there's a lot of things that I'm super proud of that have happened within the program that are part of the progression. Yeah, we want it right now, too. Yeah, we fell short."
The Alabama standard, of course, is an eye-of-the-beholder concept. Saban himself used to encapsulate it simply as "playing winning football," which can mean different things to different people. It certainly doesn't demand winning every game, or every championship. But there's plenty of consensus around its meaning in November, when the College Football Playoff selection committee is busy christening some programs and crushing others.
History can't be made without first acquiring one of the CFP's 12 golden tickets.
But let's not pretend merely qualifying for the CFP is DeBoer's ticket to a happy fan base, either. Crimson Tide supporters won't flood the streets with jubilance over a season that ends, for instance, in a first-round playoff loss. Qualifying for the CFP was a high bar for any program to clear when it was a four-team party. At 12 teams, it's still a high bar at most schools, but a low one at Alabama. DeBoer enters Year Two at a place where ReliaQuest Bowl trophies (which Alabama didn't even take home) might as well be used for door stoppers. And also, a place where coaches that win even one national championship are revered with bronze statues outside Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Alabama faces a difficult schedule with new faces at both offensive coordinator and quarterback, which isn't historically a championship recipe. It won't be surprising if its veteran defense has to carry extra weight at the beginning of the season, when the Crimson Tide will face both Florida State and Georgia in the first four weeks. It will navigate a three-game stretch against Tennessee, South Carolina and LSU, and the road trip to face the Gamecocks just might prove to be the toughest contest in that trio.
For DeBoer, Year Two is fast-approaching. But the standard doesn't move an inch.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Kalen DeBoer, the Alabama football standard, and Year Two expectations
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